8 Tongues I'll hang on every tree, 'Twixt the fouls of friend and friend: But Or at every fentence' end, Teaching all that read, to know Heaven would in little show." but although the metre may be affifted by this correction, the sense ftill is defective; for how will the hanging of tongues on every tree, make it lefs a defert? I am perfuaded we ought to read: Why Should this defert filent be? TYRWHITT. The notice which this emendation deferves, I have paid to it, by inferting it in the text. STEEVENS. 8 That shall civil fayings for.] Civil is here ufed in the fame fenfe as when we fay civil wifdom or civil life, in oppofition to a folitary ftate, or to the ftate of nature. This defert fhall not appear unpeopled, for every tree fhall teach the maxims or incidents of focial life. JOHNSON. Civil, I believe, is not defignedly oppofed to folitary. It means only grave, or folemn. So, in Twelfth Night, Act III. fc. iv: "Where is Malvolio? he is fad and civil." i. e. grave and demure. Again, in A Woman's Prize, by Beaumont and Fletcher: STEEVENS. 9in little bow.] The allufion is to a miniature-portrait. The current phrase in our author's time was-" painted in little." MALONE. So, in Hamlet: " a hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little." STERVENS. 2 Therefore heaven nature charg'd-] From the picture of Apelles, or the accomplishments of Pandora. Πανδώρην, ότι πάνει Ολύμπια δώματ' ἔχοντες So, before: "So perfect, and fo peerlefs, art created Perhaps from this paffage Swift had his hint of Biddy Floyd. JOHNSON. 3 Atalanta's better part;] I know not well what could be the better part of Atalanta here afcribed to Rofalind. Of the Atalanta most celebrated, and who therefore must be intended here where the has no epithet of difcrimination, the better part seems to have been her heels, and the worse part was so bad that Rofalind would not thank her lover for the comparifon. There is a more obfcure Atalanta, a huntress and a heroine, but of her nothing bad is recorded, and therefore I know not which was her better part. Shakspeare was no defpicable mythologift, yet he feems here to have mistaken fome other character for that of Atalanta. JOHNSON. Perhaps the poet means her beauty and graceful elegance of shape, which he would prefer to her swiftnefs. Thus Ovid: nec dicere poffes, Laude pedum, formæne bono præftantior effet. Obítupuit But cannot Atalanta's better part mean her virtue or virgin chastity, with which nature had graced Rofalind, together with Helen's beauty without her heart or lewdnefs, with Cleopatra's dignity of behaviour, and with Lucretia's modefty, that fcorned to furvive the lofs of honour? Pliny's Natural Hiftory, B. XXXV. c. iii. mentions the portraits of Atalanta and Helen, utraque excellentif fima forma, fed altera ut virgo; that is, " both of them for beauty, incomparable, and yet a man may difcerne the one [Atalanta] of Thus Rofalind of many parts By heavenly fynod was devis'd; To have the touches dearest priz'd. them to be a maiden, for her modeft and chafte countenance," as Dr. P. Holland tranflated the paffage; of which probably our poet had taken notice, for furely he had judgement in painting. TOLLET. I fuppofe Atalanta's better part is her wit, i. e. the swiftness of her mind. FARMER. Shakspeare might have taken part of this enumeration of diftinguished females from John Grange's Golden Aphroditis, 1577: who feemeft in my fight faire Helen of Troy, Polixene, Calliope, yea Atalanta hir felfe in beauty to furpaffe, Pandora in qualities, Penelope and Lucretia in chafteneffe to deface." Again, ibid: "Polixene fayre, Caliop, and Again, ibid: "Atalanta who fometyme bore the bell of beauties price in that hyr native foyle." It may be observed, that Statius alfo in his fixth Thebaid, has confounded Atalanta the wife of Hippomenes, and daughter of Siconeus, with Atalanta the daughter of Enomaus, and wife of Pelops. See v. 564. STEEVENS. Dr. Farmer's explanation may derive fome fupport from a subfequent paffage : as fwift a wit as Atalanta's heels." MALONE. I think this ftanza was formed on an old tetraftick epitaph, which, as I have done, Mr. Steevens may poffibly have read in a country church-yard: "She who is dead and fleepeth in this tomb, "Had Rachel's comely face, and Leah's fruitful womb: "Sarah's obedience, Lydia's open heart, “And Martha's care, and Mary's better part." WHALLEY. The following paffage in Marton's Infatiate Countesse, 1613, might lead one to fuppofe that Atalanta's better part was her lips: That eye was Juno's; 66 "Thofe lips were her's that won the golden ball; Be this as it may, thefe lines fhow that Atalanta was confidered as uncommonly beautiful, and therefore may ferve to fupport Mr. Tollet's firft interpretation. Heaven would that he thefe gifts should have, Ros. O moft gentle Jupiter!-what tedious homily of love have you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cry'd, Have patience, good people! CEL. How now! back friends?-Shepherd, go off a little-Go with him, firrah. TOUCH. Come, fhepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; though not with bag and baggage, yet with fcrip and fcrippage. [Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE. It is obfervable that the ftory of Atalanta in the Tenth Book of Ovid's Metamorphofes is interwoven with that of Venus and Adonis, which our author had undoubtedly read. The lines moft material to the prefent point run thus in Golding's Tranflation, 1567: She overcame them out of doubt; and hard it is to tell "Thee, whether she did in footemanshippe or beautie more excell." 66 66 he did condemne the young men's love. But when "He faw her face and body bare, (for why, the lady then Did ftrip her to her naked jkin,) the which was like to mine, "Or rather, if that thou waft made a woman, like to thine, "He was amaz'd." 66 And though that fhe "Did flie as fwift as arrow from a Turkie bow, yet hee grace. MALONE. The paffage quoted by Mr. Malone from Marfton's Infatiate Countess, has no reference to the ball of Atalanta, but to the golden apple which was adjudged to Venus by Paris, on Mount Ida. After all, I believe, that " Atalanta's better part" means onlythe best part about her, fuch as was moft commended. STEEVENS 4 Sad-] Is grave, sober, not light. JOHNSON. So, in Much ado about Nothing :-" She is never fad but when the fleeps." STEEVENS. the touches-] The features; les traits. JOHNSON. So, in King Richard III: "Madam, I have a touch of your condition." STEEVENS. CEL. Didft thou hear these verses? Ros. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for fome of them had in them more feet than the verfes would bear. CEL. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verfes. Ros. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves without the verfe, and therefore stood lamely in the verse. CEL. But didft thou hear, without wondering how thy name fhould be hang'd and carved upon these trees? Ros. I was feven of the nine days out of the wonder, before you came; for look here what I found on a palm-tree: I was never so be-rhimed fince Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat,' which I can hardly remember. 7 6 a palm-tree:] A palm-tree, in the foreft of Arden is as much out of its place, as the lioness in a subsequent scene. STEEVENS. -I was never fo be-rhimed fince Pythagoras' time, that I was an Irish rat,] Rosalind is a very learned lady. She alludes to the Pythagorean doctrine, which teaches that fouls tranfmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time fhe was an Irish rat, and by fome metrical charm was rhymed to death. The power of killing rats with rhymes Donne mentions in his Satires, and Temple in his Treatifes. Dr. Grey has produced a fimilar paffage from Randolph: My poets "Shall with a fatire, fteep'd in gall and vinegar, JOHNSON. So, in an addrefs to the reader, at the conclufion of Ben Jonfon's Poetafter: "Rhime them to death, as they do Irish rats So, in The Defence of Poefie by our author's contemporary, Sir Philip Sidney: Though I will not with unto you to be driven by a poet's verfes, as Rubonax was, to hang yourself, nor to be rimed to death, as is faid to be done in Ireland"- MALONE. |